The American constitutional order has been broken, and it’s not clear it can be recovered. Many are still in denial about it, and continue to report on political machinations, business as usual. But this is just muscle memory: journalists have beats and write the stories they are expected to write, and the great game of Washington marches on unfazed. But few are facing this grim reality: the United States government is being ripped apart, limb by limb, with little consideration to the future, to national security, to the welfare of the population, or the country’s role in the world.
This state of checkmate results from a breakdown in the checks and balances between our three branches of government. The executive branch has been fully captured by Musk and Trump, and is overseeing massive “cuts” that directly contradict the express will of the legislative branch, which has exclusive constitutional authority to allocate funding.
The President has argued that his executive orders justifying Musk’s hack-and-slash operation are a legal case of “impoundment” (or not spending) of funds allocated by Congress. Congress, naturally, disagrees, writing in a recent briefing, “the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (including in an opinion written by future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court William H. Rehnquist), and the Supreme Court of the United States, have all disavowed the notion of some ‘inherent Presidential power to impound,’ as some in the Trump orbit have tried to argue without legal or textual basis.”
Judges then become involved, being asked to decide on temporary restraining orders, injunctions, and other measures that might block DOGE. One attorney friend told me, perhaps reflexively, “I still have faith in the courts” — immediately realizing that those words now ring hollow. While the courts can issue orders and injunctions, enforcement of those orders requires action by the executive branch, which has been fully captured.
Whether we are talking about the Department of Justice or the FBI, these august institutions are being transformed as we speak into instruments for presidential vengeance and information warfare. The Attorney General is focused on document dumps (most of which are readacted because of actual legal requirements — not whim) and in hunting down political dirt on political rivals. The FBI is doing much of the same and is figuring out how to partner with the “Ultimate Fighting Championships” to teach martial arts skills to career agents. To say that the DOJ and FBI are disinclined to undermine the “unitary president” to which they are loyal is a vast understatement.
Clearly, this is a constitutional crisis. Reluctance on the part of some to say so is the result of either willful naïveté or political inertia. The belief that the pendulum always swings back and that “both sides” have valid concerns only works when the system of checks and balances can function properly. But we’ve ripped out all the wiring and sold it for scrap.
Larry Diamond, a leading scholar on the democratic decline, pulled no punches in a recent description of our predicament. He cites the same fundamental concerns expressed above, and adds that the most dangerous element right now is the lack of any meaningful resistance. In fact, many people are cheering Musk’s DOGE team as it plunders one agency after the next.
Can our collapse be stopped? Maybe. House Republicans need to decide whether they endorse Musk’s power grab. If a portion of them break away and join with Democrats to pass legislation that somehow disrupts our freefall, perhaps we can mount a recovery. Absent that reversal, we assuredly will go headlong into the shredder — which unfortunately aligns with the desires of Musk’s tech-fascist allies as well as Putin and Xi. Per my recent reporting on the “Dark Enlightenment” movement articulated by tech influencer Curtis Yarvin, they would like to see our strong federal government replaced with a loose federation of smaller states, each competing to attract residents based on tax rates and services rendered.
Elon Musk and DOGE are a meatspace problem, not an ideaspace problem. He needs to be physically restrained, and now. While courts, pundits, and legislators make proclamations, words have no mass and cannot constrain him. He and his DOGE boys are taking control of physical computer networks and databases, often at night and on weekends, proving the principle that possession is (at least) nine tenths of the law. If Musk is to be restrained, those in the ideaspace realm need to figure out how to effect an outcome in the meatspace realm.
Perhaps there is an ally in the US Postal Inspection Service (which famously arrested Steve Bannon in 2020), or someone in the hierarchy of the US Treasury that can be compelled to take physical custody of Musk. Perhaps he should be declared an enemy combatant, and captured by the military; perhaps he should be sanctioned as a foreign asset, or even deported for violating the terms of his naturalization. Perhaps security guards or other employees at agencies can mount increased physical resistance to his intrusions. But rest assured that until or unless Musk is curtailed in meatspace, this attack will continue, and without any effective constitutional remedy.
Musk’s team is now in the process of capturing the FAA and integrating Starlink (the satellite internet service Musk controls) into a redesign of the airspace system. Many have misread this as simple self-dealing and corruption, but it’s much worse — strategic capture of the global aviation system. Any changes made at the FAA will need to be harmonized with ICAO, the international UN authority that oversees aviation. Musk’s assault here is the tip of the spear for gaining global control over aviation and the flow of goods and people — with all of this seemingly backed and cheered by Putin and his ally Xi.
Americans now face a stark and simple choice: either attempt to deal with Musk now and risk possible failure, or face certain failure with no chance of recovery. This isn’t a partisan matter; this is about resolving a constitutional crisis and the survival of the United States. What path will we choose? Time is running out.
Dave Troy is an investigative journalist covering the intersection of technology and democracy. With a background as both a tech entrepreneur and historian, he brings his unique perspective to analysis of geopolitics, information warfare, and other current events. He is currently the publisher and editor of America 2.0, a news site focused on the future of democracy in America and around the world. Dave speaks frequently at conferences on information warfare, and hosts the podcast Dave Troy Presents.
The thing about Musk is that he doesn’t do “anything.” He just gives advice/orders and relies on others to carry those orders out for him.
Legally there is nothing anyone can do to stop him. What may actually stop him is public accountability for those carrying out the orders.
Musk’s lawyers made it clear in court that he did not illegally fire any federal employees. Now “Charles Ezell” is allegedly arguing neither did OPM. I have suspicions about Ezell, but all of that aside, we are seeing more and more legal proof that these orders are breaking the law.
If people stop carrying these illegal orders out, it paralyzes the cowards delivering them behind official memos and pre-recorded conference calls. When orders come in they should be going to union lawyers first who need to consider these orders on their client’s behalf before ANY additional action can be taken. That means nobody carries out these illegal orders until they can be sure they’re not making themselves liable.